Draft-regulator



(No Model.)

J. HOPSON, Jr.

DRAFT REGULATOR.

Patented July 2, 1889.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN HOPSON, JR, OF NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT.

DRAFT-REGULATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 406,138, dated July 2, 1889.

Application filed May 22, 1888. Serial No. 274,721. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN IIOPSON, J12, of New London, county of New London, and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Draft-Regulators, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

My invention has relation to means for antomatically governing or regulating the draft of boilers, furnaces, 850., especially such as employ hot water or heated liquids for conveying heat to radiators, &c. Such means or devices are ordinarily known as draft-regulators or damper-regulators.

The object of my invention is to produce a simple, cheap, and effective regulator of the class named, which shall operate by and in accordance with pressure due to the heat of the circulating medium or liquid and independently of any pressure therein or thereof, and which shall be certain in action, capable of easy and convenient adjustment from any desired station, so as to automatically operate at any required temperature, and which shall not be liable to get out of order. To accomplish all of this and to secure other and further advantages in the matters of construction and operation, my improvements involve certain new and useful arrangements or combinations of parts, peculiarities of construction, and principles of operation, all of which will be herein first fully described, and then pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, I have shown at Fig ure 1 a viewin elevation of myimproved device or apparatus applied upon a boiler for supplying hot water, the boiler being broken out, so as to show the top, bottom, and walls. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of one form of diaphragmchamber which may be employed to transmit pressure to the regulator-lever. Fig. 3 is a sectional View of the chamber which 0011- tains the vaporizingdiquid, and the connection by which the same is mounted upon the boiler. Fig. 4 is a plan of a double pulley for the regulating chains or cords. Fig. 5 is a side view of a convenient form of wheel em= ployed for moving the regulating-chains.

In all the figures like letters of reference, wherever they occur, indicate corresponding parts.

A represents a boiler for supplying hot water for heating purposes. It may be replaced by any approved form of boiler or heater.

B is adragfit-door,usuallyopeningbeneath the fire-grate, and O is a check-draft door admitting air into the smoke-flue. The draft-door and check-draft door may of course bemonnted and arranged in any way, being only here indicated to show how the apparatus may be employed to operate one or both.

D is a fitting applied upon the boiler, through which the water or other liquid leaves the boiler as it circulates. This is preferably made in the form shown, so that all the circulating liquid must pass through it. Within this fitting I secure a vessel 'E, which is made to containalcohol, naphtha, or other liquid which will vaporize at a temperature lower than 212 Fahrenheit. This vessel is threaded, so that it may be properly inserted in the fitting D. From the top of vessel E a tube, as a, leads to the under side of a diaphragm, as I), mounted in a suitable ease and made to carry a piston c. The diaphragm might be replaced by a piston of ordinary form; but the diaphragm is preferred as being less liable to leakage. It is movable under the influence of the pressure of the confined liquid, but solid or imperforate, so as to prevent any escape thereof. Otherwise the contents of the vessel would vary, and thus the object of the inventionbe defeated. The piston c is connected with a lever or arm F at a point, as (Z, a trifle in advance of a point e at which the lever is hinged.

One end of lever or arm F is connected with the draft-door B and the other with the checkdraft door O by suitable flexible chains or cablesf and g. It is not necessary that both doors be connected with the lever at one time. One or both may be operated at pleasure, and the connections may be made directly or by running the chains or lines over pulleys, as may be required Being arranged as so far described, it is plain that as the piston c rises (which it does when the heat increases) it carries one end of the lever up, allowing the other end to fall, thus closing the draftdoor C, and thereby checking the combustion and further heating of the contents of the boiler. If the lever continues to rise, the check-draft damper will be opened, producing a further check upon the heating, as will be readily understood. The chains f and 9 may be so proportioned that both doors will be moved simultaneously.

G is a weight arranged to be easily moved back and forth upon the lever or arm F, and for this purpose is preferably provided with a wheel 71'. A chain or equivalent line I leads from the weight G under a pulley 1'. near the outer end of the lever, thence back from over pulley 2' under a pulley 7., located in close proximity to and nearly over the hinge-point e, thence up and over a chain or other wheel Z, located at any desired station convenient of ac cess, then back under pulley 7t and to the weight. The pulleys 7c and 7a are located, as explained, so that the chain I will tend very little, if any, to lift the weight.

The adjustable weight G maybe first set upon the lever or arm F, so as to balance the door l3 more or less accurately when there is no pressure of vapor in chamber E, and then the door will be automatically closed as soon as the pressure rises. 13y moving the weight farther from the hingepoint of course its leverage increases, and it will hold the door B open until the pressure in chamber E is sufficient to overcome the weight at its new position. The weight may be moved back and forth on the lever F by the chain I, the chain-wheel I being suitably turned by any hand-wheel, as m, sustained in a bracket, as a, convenient to be applied at any point. More than one of these chain-wheels may be used, if desired.

Connected. with chamber E is a gage K, which is preferably scaled so as to indicate temperatures corresponding with the pressurc of the vapor in chamber E, rather than degrees of pressure. This gage maybe located at any point. By observing its indications the weight may be adjusted so that at any required temperature the draftdoor B will be closed, after which it will be opened if the temperature diminishes and again closed if it increases again. At 0 is any simple form of plug closing a filling-orifice leading to chamber E.

From a consideration of the construction indicated it will be understood that the heat of a room or the heat of the liquid in aboilcr may be maintained at any desired degree or automatically regulated, as may be desired, by the operator, effecting economy of fuel as well as convenience or comfort. By use of the liquid, which vaporizcs at a lower de gree of heat than water, I am enabled to regulate the draft by pressure less than that required to produce steam, and this makes the device applicable to hot-water heaters in which the temperature is not calculated to rise above 212 Fahrenheit. If dependent upon the pressure of vapor of water, then regulation could only be effected from points above 212 Fahrenheit; but by use of the alcohol, 850., I can accomplish the desired regulation down to degrees of heat suflieient for its vaporization, and that is an important matter in hot-water heaters. It is important to prevent leakage of the vapor, and I therefore recommend that few joints be used in the connection between chamber E and the under side of the diaphragm and that all the joints be soldered.

At (1 is a T-joint, in which is a plug 9'. This is employed to facilitate filling of the pipe or chamber beneath diaphragm b with alcohol or equivalent liquid.

The chain I may be supplied with any form of indicator, as two tags 19 p, the relative positions of which will indicate to the operator the point to which the weight G is adjusted, or how or in which direction the chain is to be moved in order to increase or decrease the temperature in the room. Any equivalent indicator may be applied to the chain or the wheel which moves it.

Being constructed and arranged substantially in accordance with the foregoing ex planations, the improved regulator is found to admirably answer the purpose or object of the invention, as previously set forth.

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim as new herein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a draft-regulator, a vessel containing liquid vaporizing at a lower degree of heat than water, a movable imperforate diaphragm actuated by said liquid and prevent ing escape thereof, a lever or arm moved by said diaphragm, a traveling weight mounted on said lever, pulleys also mounted on the lever, and chains or lines for adjusting the weight, and a draftaloor connected with one end of the lever, these parts being combined and arranged to operate substantially as explained.

2. In a draft-regulator, the lever or arm carrying an adjustable weight, and pulleys and chains for moving the weight, said lever being operated by the pressure of vapor from an easily-vapm'izing medium-such as alcohol, &c.confined by a movable imperforate diaphragm, said lever being connected on one side of its hinge-point with a draft-door and on the other side of its hinge-point with a check-draft door, these parts being combined and arranged substantially as explained.

In a draftregulator, the closed vessel for containing alcohol or other easily-vaporizing material, the gage con'nnunieating with the interior thereof and operated by the pressure therein, an imperforate diaphragm, a lever connected with said diaphragm, the adjustable weight and pulleys and chains for moving said. weight upon the lever, and the draftdoor, combined and arranged substantially as shown and described.

4. In. a draft-regulator, the combination,

IOC

with the operating lever or arm and its aetu- In testimony that I claim the foregoing I ating-diaphragm, of the adjustable Weight have hereunto set my hand in the presence of 10 mounted upon said lever or arm, the adj usttwo Witnesses.

ing-ehains connected with said Weight, and v the pulleys located one near the end of the JOHN HOPSON lever and the other near the hinge-point, Witnesses:

substantially as and for the purposes set JOHN BUCKLER,

forth. WORTH ()SGOOD. 

